Monday, April 9, 2012

Planning Out Your Eye Catching Vegetable Garden

How do you know where and when to plant your vegetables not only to get the best production, but also to look the best? The answer is different for every yard, of course, but the best thing you can do is to simply plan it out!
Visual elements that add a nice look to your garden, is layering. Putting different height plants together that complement each other makes for a pleasing looking garden. Growing green beans up a trellis in the corner, or growing them up the corn is a fun element. This year we are growing the pole beans up the corn, and growing the pumpkins underneath the corn and beans. That is called the three sisters, and is how the native Americans grew those vegetables.
I also like the look of grow boxes. It adds a nice clean look to it, and helps me to keep the weeds down. The grow boxes are easy to keep weeded, and then in the paths, we put down some plastic with wood chips over the top.
Do no be afraid to add some flowers into your vegetable garden. In fact some flowers are beneficial to your garden, such as Marigolds planted around tomatoes destroy nematodes, and repel white flies, tomato horn worms, bean beetles, and cucumber beetles. Basil is also a great companion to tomato as they also repel horn worm. Also putting pots of mint in your cabbage patch will help to repel cabbage moths and ants. Just keep the mint in pots as they will try to take over the garden if not in pots.
Planning is key.
I planned out our garden with the garden planner, and have been referring back to it often to see what I should be doing in my garden to stay up to date on my chores. I find that when I am out in the garden, I sometimes make changes to my plan and plant things in a slightly different location. Then I will go inside and make those changes on my garden planner, so that I can remember exactly where everything was planted for next year. I also take notes on the plants in the plant list in the garden planner like; I have that are heirloom and should save the seeds for next year, or when they germinated and the such. Take a look at my vegetable garden plan, and start your own no risk trial of this great garden planner, I know you will love it!
Happy Gardening!

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